10-man India loses 0-1 to Qatar in 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifier
A winless India remained in fourth spot in Group E with three points from six matches.
Published : Jun 04, 2021 00:45 IST
A 10-man India defended creditably well as it suffered a 0-1 defeat to Asian champions Qatar in their World Cup qualifying round match on Thursday.
Abdel Aziz scored in the 33rd minute in a match completely dominated by the Qataris.
Qatar, which is yet to lose a match, had waves of attacks with eight to nine players in the Indian half for most of the time. Goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu had to pull off a series of saves to keep the margin of loss small.
India, however, played with 10 men from the 17th minute onwards after defender Rahul Bheke was red carded for a second booking. He had earlier received a yellow card in the ninth minute.
India did have two good moves in the match from counter attacks with Manvir Singh in the thick of things on both occasions.
India captain Sunil Chhetri, who returned to the team after recovering from COVID-19 infection, was replaced by Udanta Singh at the resumption of second half.
A winless India remained in fourth spot in Group E with three points from six matches.
Igor Stimac's men is two points behind Afghanistan (third with five points) which played out a 1-1 draw against Bangladesh earlier in the day. India plays Bangladesh on June 7 in its next match.